1. Field
Embodiments relate to a door to open and close a storage compartment of a refrigerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
A refrigerator, which generally includes a storage compartment to store food and a cold air supply unit to supply cold air, is a home appliance used to keep food fresh.
The front face of the storage compartment, which is formed to be opened to take out or store food, may be opened or closed by a door. The door includes a heat insulator to prevent leakage of cold air in the storage compartment or introduction of warmer external air into the storage compartment.
For the door of the refrigerator, foam insulation, which is formed by foaming and hardening an undiluted urethane foam solution made by mixing foaming agent and urethane, and vacuum insulation, which is formed by coating an inner core member formed of glass fiber with an aluminum deposited film, are mainly used.
Since the vacuum insulation has a better insulation performance than the foam insulation, it may be useful in achieving a predetermined insulation performance and at the same time minimizing the thickness of the door. Therefore, the foam insulation and the vacuum insulation are sometimes used together for the doors of recent refrigerators.
However, if the vacuum insulation is arranged to contact the outer panel or inner panel of the door, frost may be formed on the outer panel or inner panel of the door due to heat transfer of external warm air to the door. For this reason, the vacuum insulation is disposed at the core of the door so as not to contact the outer panel or inner panel, and sometimes the foam insulation is disposed between the outer panel and the vacuum insulation and between the vacuum insulation and the inner panel.
An example of such a refrigerator is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2011-0034532. According to this document, vacuum insulation is arranged inclined using a support member placed between the outer panel and the inner panel, and then urethane foam solution is injected into the space between the vacuum insulation and the outer panel and the space between the vacuum insulation and the inner panel at the same time and foamed and hardened.
However, with the above technique, it may be difficult to obtain uniform formation of foam insulation between the vacuum insulation and the outer panel and between the vacuum insulation and the inner panel.